FREE Search Engine Promotion Secrets

   Part 1 of the Search Engine Secrets Guide is full of free information on how to design a web site for successful web promotion and the Search Engines in mind. Before a web site is developed there are some important coding aspects that need to be considered. All search engines read and interpret HTML documents differently. This means that your web site should be designed to take full advantage of each search engine's specific coding parameters.

Web Site Promotion
-- Getting To Know the Search Engines --
(They're your Internet friend)

Consideration #1 <TITLES>

   First-time web site designers often fail to consider how search engines read and index web pages, focusing instead on the page's layout and design. Other designers may know enough to include meta-tags, but are unaware of the importance of the page title.

   As an example lets compare two auto repair sites, one which has the title "Joe's repair shop" and the other "Auto Repair, Servicing compact to full-size trucks, cars and vans". If someone were to search for "Car repair" both sites would be listed in the results, but "Joe's repair shop" would be listed deep within the thousands if not millions of search results. The second page would appear near the top of the results because both 'cars' and 'repair' are listed in the page's title. This can be seen in approximately 30% of the web sites currently posted on the Internet.

   A web page's title is considered to be the most important description of the page's content. This is true with almost all search engines, so be sure your titles contain the most important keywords associated with your site. Some search engines will only read 40 characters of the title and some will read as many as 90. This means in order to take full advantage of all search engines the title should contain around 4 to 10 keywords. NOTE: Some search engines rate the first word in the title as the most important keyword in the page.

Consideration #2<META CONTENT>

   Meta-tags are unseen coding placed in an HTML document, used by Web Browsers and search engines. Meta-tags contain instructions giving a full description of the site's content, keywords of the site, author name, and what you want the browser or engine to read and display. You'll find that nearly 50% of web sites lack meta tags altogether, this is a grave oversight. Always include meta-tags in your document. It can be argued that many sites listed at the top of a search query don't have meta-tags, but this is only when the title of the site matches the search string. Remember, Title is king. Most search engines will read meta-tags and index them for relevancy. For instance, Alta Vista, Lycos, Hot Bot, Web Crawler, and Infoseek are all search engines that read meta information, but not all of them use the information the same way. Click here for more info on Meta tags and coding considerations.

Consideration #3 <ALT TAGS>

  If your web site has images, as most web sites do, you should take advantage of the alt tag to place an otherwise unseen keyword. The alt tag is meant for users that surf the Internet with ancient browsers or with images turned off. Most search engines read this text and index it for relevancy. Alt-tags can also be used to entice viewers to click on a button and/or image. Microsoft Internet Explorer lists the alt text when the mouse rolls over either a text or graphic link.

Consideration #4 <DIRECTORIES>

    Before you begin designating the web site's directory names, it would be wise to name them using keywords that relate to that directory's contents. Some search engines index these for relevancy. For example, the address "www.celias- place.com/restaurant/gourmet_entrees/italian/" contains four keywords that relate to the site's product. When someone searches for "Italian restaurants" the folder names "restaurant" and "Italian" will increase it's relevancy in the returned results.

    Anyone who owns and operates a web site wants a good listing in a search. Unfortunately, many sites appear poorly on the search engines or may not be listed at all, simply because they fail to consider how the search engines work. If you are looking for a web site designer , make sure they fully understand the in's and out's of the search engines. It can, in some instances, make or break a business' Internet success.

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What is spamming?

    Spamming is a major concern on the World Wide Web and threatens the existence of many worthwhile ventures on the Internet. Spamming is flooding the Internet with bulk e-mail sent to advertise and promote a product or service to people who would otherwise choose not to receive it. If you choose to spam you'll endanger the continued use of your ISP, possibly invoke legal action, and will undoubtedly be bombarded with e-mail from many angry people.

    Spamming also refers to loading a web site with keyword terms and phrases that have nothing to do with the site's specific content. Webmasters do this to obtain higher than normal rankings on search engine listings. This is a foolish way to increase the number of viewers a particular site receives. First of all, if the site comes up high on a search query it better contain information concerning what the viewer searched for. The viewer may be lured into the site, but they will surely hit the back button just as fast as they entered the site.

   The following are some common spamming practices. If you choose to employ any of these tactics the search engines will penalize you. NOTE: Be aware that search engines are getting smarter every day.

1. Repetition of keywords.
2. Using colored text on same-colored background to hide content.
3. Keywords that do not relate to the content of the site.
4. Duplication of pages with different URL's.

   If these tactics are used, the only success is in making the search engines look bad. How often have you used a search engine and wondered why 9 out of the ten results are either the same site or sites that have nothing to do with your search? The anger you feel should be directed at the designers who created the sites that appear at the top.

Where did the term Spamming come from?

   There is quite a bit of debate about where this term came from. Many agree it came form the Monty Python song,"Spam spam spam spam, spam spam spam spam, lovely spam, wonderful spamó". Others contend it came from a group of computer users at the University of Southern California who gave it the name because it has many of the same characteristics as the lunchmeat Spam:
    Nobody wants it or ever asks for it.
    No one ever eats it; it is the first item to be pushed to the side when eating the entree.
    Sometimes it is actually tasty, like 1% of junk mail that is really useful to some people.

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The Structure of Search Engines

   A search engine is software that searches a database located on a remote computer. Web viewers submit a keyword query and the search engine responds with a list of the sites in it's database matching the query. Many of the search engines build their collection of web sites by sending out special software programs, often called 'spiders', 'robots', 'web crawlers', or 'worms', to collect web addresses for their database.

   Search engines have three major components: The spider, the index, and the search software. The spider visits web sites and reads important information in the coding such as META tags, all of the text on the page, and all links to other pages. The spiders will try to search all the pages on the web regardless of being submitted to the search engines or not. The spider returns to the web site on a monthly or bimonthly basis to look for changes in the site. Everything the spider reads is categorized into the second part of a search engine, the index. The index is a giant database containing a copy of every web page the spider finds. If a web page changes, the index is updated with the new information once the spider revisits the site. Search software is the third component of a search engine. This is the application program that sifts through the millions of recorded pages to find matches to a search query, then ranks them in order of what it believes to be the most relevant.

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Deep Search Engines vs. Standard Search Engines

There are two main types of search engines scouring the web today, Deep Search Engines and Standard Search Engines.

   Deep search engines are constantly searching the World Wide Web for new and updated pages. These search engines are useful when searching for obscure and hard to find information. By searching for popular subjects like entertainment and games the number of results returned would be in the millions, making it extremely difficult to find exactly what you're looking for.

This is a list of the Deep Search Engines that use spiders to update their pages:
Alta Vista• Google • Hot Bot • Lycos •
Northern Light

    Standard Search Engines are the most practical for finding general and popular areas of interest. The only pages you'll find with these search engines are those that have been submitted directly to them. Typing in a keyword topic brings up information that is relevant to that specific topic, guaranteed. This eliminates the need to browse millions of results that may or may not have anything to do with what you're looking for.

Examples of standard search engines:
Info space •Comfind • Galaxy •Search.com •Yellow Pages • Starting Point

    Yahoo! is a special search engine that is both a standard engine and a categorized listing (see below). It is the most popular and widely used search engine on the Internet If you are a business trying to sell something, Yahoo is your best bet.

    Categorized Listings are not search engines, but like the name implies, they are information categories that are held in a database just like your own computer. Each category has a list of titles in it with a URL listing and a short description of what is in the site. There are thousands of these sites on the net. They don't get very much traffic, but you should try to cover all ground for promoting your Web site.

    Our approach in web page design is to the small and medium size businesses looking to get on the Internet or are in need of web site renovation. We help you plan your site, build it to your specifications, then teach you how to maintain it. If you are interested in our services, please Contact Us for more information.